Life and Death in the Northern Pass • Dominic Bracco II

Chapter 1: The Siege (2010 – 2012)

“There are two ways of thinking about living here; either you go on every day and when it’s your turn to die you die, or you live every day in fear.” – Daniel Gonzalez, 26, a resident of Ciudad Juarez who later moved to El Paso, Texas.

In the decades preceding the drug war the population of Ciudad Juarez exploded as droves of workers came in search of jobs promised after the implementation of several international free trade agreements. Officials did little during this time to boost infrastructure. Instead policy makers focused on keeping labor on the border cheap and competitive with countries like China, India and Pakistan.

The area of Juarez where most factory workers lived had one high school until 2011 for over 600,000 inhabitants. It took years for water and electricity to make it up the mountainside were the factory workers lived. The city’s proximity to the United States and the flow of drugs, coupled with limited social opportunities, helped fuel the environment that made Ciudad Juarez the most violent city in the world. In 2008 when the Sinaloa Cartel entered to take over the local drug trade the cartels began employing youth after the death toll kept rising. The disgruntled teenagers of the city took to the streets to become sicarios or hitmen. By 2012 the death toll would reach over 10,000.

In the decades preceding the drug war the population of Ciudad Juarez exploded as droves of workers came in search of jobs promised after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Thousands came from the collapsing agricultural industry on one-way bus tickets paid for by recruiting companies to fill the assembly lines. Ciudad Juarez, with almost no natural resources, became an international economic hub overnight and the face of a new era in Mexican trade. Its commodity: cheap labor. Commercial real-estate expansion there was the highest in North America. Foreign investment continued along the border despite years of violence. Maquiladoras, or manufacturing plants, pay less than 100 US dollars a week to their labor force. In a city where the cost of living is nearly on par with the United States, the lure of easy livable wages from working for a cartel is an irresistible temptation to many Juarenses struggling with meager incomes.

The area of Juarez where most factory workers live had one high school until 2011 for over 600,000 inhabitants. Juarez’s proximity to the United States, illicit trade, coupled with limited social opportunities, fueled the environment that made Ciudad Juarez the most violent city in the world. In 2008 when the Sinaloa Cartel entered to take over the local drug trade the cartels began employing youth and used existing street gang infrastructure to battle for the city block by block. Disgruntled teenagers took to the streets to become sicarios or hitmen. By 2012 the death toll would reach over 10,000. This pattern has now been repeated in cities across Mexico and into Central America.

The most vulnerable social group in Juarez is “Los Ninis,” young men and women who earn their name from the phrase “ni estudian, ni trabajan” (those who neither work nor study). According to a recent study by the Colegio de La Frontera Norte, as many as 45 percent of all Juarez residents between the ages of 14 and 24 fall into this category and they make up a quarter of the city’s total homicide victims.

Massacres of Juarez’s youth were common—they were gunned down at parties and targeted at rehab centers. Killing was indiscriminate. The first mass killing of youths took place in January 2010 when 15 teenagers were gunned down at a party where friends had gathered to celebrate a birthday. Fourteen other teens were gunned downed in October 2010.

Without work, or a real incentive to work, young people are increasingly turning to the cartels where the boundaries between crime and an honest path are often blurred by the bloodshed and fear enveloping the city.

Chapter 2: Pax Mafioso (2012 – present)

Siciarios, or hitmen, still haunt Ciudad Juarez, but they have grown tired of killing. At their bloodiest, the homicides exceeded 300 murders a month, July 2012 – a record month – would see 48. And yet, while “life has returned to the murder capitol of the world,” the question remains: at what cost?

Authorities have been quick to attribute the drop in violence to policing and social programs, but residents claim Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel has finally tightened its grasp.

The scene of a murdered couple. The woman was far into her pregnancy. The couple’s heads touched in a last embrace. A single bullet entered the man’s skull and took all three lives.
It is difficult to say who these victims were. The back of their truck was filled with glass and tools. It is possible that they were workers killed for not paying an extortion to the cartels. It is also possible that they were somehow involved in organized crime. At the time it was to dangerous to investigate their deaths.
In 2010 alone there were 3,100 reported murders in the city. There are projections that 2011 will yield 5,000 deaths.

A young girl prepares for her fifteenth birthday party, a coming of age party known as a "quinceañera". Her family spent most of their savings on making it a happy occasion. Her father had recently lost his job and was making ends meet by making repairs to homes in the neighborhood.
Nearly 10,000 businesses have closed since the onslaught of violence began in 2008. Most have closed because they were unable to pay extortion and were killed or fled. However foreign investment remains strong. Mexico boasts one of the cheapest labor markets in the world paying as little as $50 per week for a factory job. Low labor costs combined with its proximity to the United States and Canada continue to make it a attractive. These reasons also can be attributed to making Ciudad Juarez an attractive market for recruitment for the drug cartels.

A group of young men catch a ride in the back of a car to their friends funeral in one of the poorer areas of Ciudad Juarez. The 15 year-old boy Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca was shot by a United States Border Patrol Agent.

Family and friends attend the funerals of three female victims of a massacre that left 13 dead and over a dozen wounded in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Most of the victims were between the ages of 14 and 20 years old and were attending a birthday party. They were herded into a corder of the house and executed by a firing squad. Armed men came looking for one young man, but when the patrons responded that he was not there they opened fire.

A family celebrates a birthday.
Family parties like these have been the scene of large massacres.

A member of the Novenos climbs a fence.

Denise watches lights go by outside the back window of a van. Her family is from Mexico City and moved to Juarez because of domestic violence in the family. Now the family has considered returning because of violence in Juarez.

A young boy keeps warm by a fire in the Noveno Barrio, one of the oldest maquila worker settlements in the city.

From right, Juan "Pollo," 19, and his wife Liz, 18, try to get their baby girl to stop crying. Pollo left the Noveno barrio after a rival gang killed several friends and began seeking him out. Now Pollo works in a factory insulating steel cables and makes roughly 50 USD per week.

A family decorated their home in this predominately factory worker neighborhood on the fringes of the city. Many homes are abandoned, as hundreds of thousands have fled the city due to violence and lack of jobs. The developments were build by tycoons who were responsible for bringing the factories to the region while they were in government office. They purchased thousands of hectares of land anticipating the industrial expansion. Low wages and expensive transit costs have made these communities very isolated from the rest of the city infrastructure. The region is now mostly controlled by the Sinaloa cartel.

Residents of Ciudad Juarez take to the streets to protest the shooting of a student by a Federal Police officer days before.

Los Novenos get high smoking marijuana and huffing paint thinner on the football fields in their neighborhoods.
The most vulnerable social group is “Los Ninis,” young men and women who earned their name from the phrase “ni estudian, ni trabajan” (those who neither work nor study). According to a recent study by the Colegio de La Frontera Norte, up to 45 percent of all Juarez residents between 14 and 24 fall into this category and make up a quarter of the city’s total homicide victims.

A couple dances at a gang affiliated party in the Diaz Ordaz colonia. With infrastructure damaged from the drug war and few opportunities for work, Ciudad Juarez's youth often turn to crime to make ends meet. This gang formed to protect the neighborhood from neighboring gangs who would come and rob their community. They have been associated with at least one vigilante killing.

Lidia consoles her daughter. Lidia and her family were forced to leave their home after members of the Noveno gang retaliated against Los Tristes. Because the Novenos often gathered around their house, they threatened to kill Lidia and her children.

Blood stains the doorstep of a home where three men were executed.

Clothes dry in the spring air.

Friends and relatives try to revive a woman in the shade, after she passed out from heat exhaustion during a funeral at midday.

Prisoners line up for lunch at the state penitentiary.

A masked Mexican Federal Police officer looks over two detained alleged hitmen in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua on May 19, 2010.

A guard dog streches the length of his chain in front of a family of factory worker's home in Juarez.

Family and friends gather around the body of 15-year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, who was killed on by a Border Patrol agent.
According to eye witnesses the shooting occurred after Guereca helped guide several other teenagers into the United States when they were spotted and retreated back to Mexico. One of their group was detained by the U.S. Border Patrol and at least one of the boys threw a rock from the Mexican border into the United States toward the Border Patrol agent upon which he returned fire at the group, firing several rounds, and hitting Guereca in the head. The killing sparked much controversy over the use of force across international borders and sat uneasy in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico where thousands of killings have happened as a result of the insecurity caused by the war on drugs. There are still many questions unanswered about what exactly happened on June 7th near the international bridge as there are conflicting reports from the agent and eye witnesses. The border patrol agent continues to work and the family is seeking legal action.
The family denies accusations that the 15-year-old boy was involved in illegal activity, however U.S. authorities and interviews with classmates suggest that he was involved in human smuggling.

A view of some of the poorest regions of Ciudad Juarez made up primarily of factory workers for work for foreign companies.

PROJECTS

Life and Death in the Northern Pass

By Dominic Bracco II

Chapter 1: The Siege (2010 – 2012)

“There are two ways of thinking about living here; either you go on every day and when it’s your turn to die you die, or you live every day in fear.” – Daniel Gonzalez, 26, a resident of Ciudad Juarez who later moved to El Paso, Texas.

In the decades preceding the drug war the population of Ciudad Juarez exploded as droves of workers came in search of jobs promised after the implementation of several international free trade agreements. Officials did little during this time to boost infrastructure. Instead policy makers focused on keeping labor on the border cheap and competitive with countries like China, India and Pakistan.

The area of Juarez where most factory workers lived had one high school until 2011 for over 600,000 inhabitants. It took years for water and electricity to make it up the mountainside were the factory workers lived. The city’s proximity to the United States and the flow of drugs, coupled with limited social opportunities, helped fuel the environment that made Ciudad Juarez the most violent city in the world. In 2008 when the Sinaloa Cartel entered to take over the local drug trade the cartels began employing youth after the death toll kept rising. The disgruntled teenagers of the city took to the streets to become sicarios or hitmen. By 2012 the death toll would reach over 10,000.

In the decades preceding the drug war the population of Ciudad Juarez exploded as droves of workers came in search of jobs promised after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Thousands came from the collapsing agricultural industry on one-way bus tickets paid for by recruiting companies to fill the assembly lines. Ciudad Juarez, with almost no natural resources, became an international economic hub overnight and the face of a new era in Mexican trade. Its commodity: cheap labor. Commercial real-estate expansion there was the highest in North America. Foreign investment continued along the border despite years of violence. Maquiladoras, or manufacturing plants, pay less than 100 US dollars a week to their labor force. In a city where the cost of living is nearly on par with the United States, the lure of easy livable wages from working for a cartel is an irresistible temptation to many Juarenses struggling with meager incomes.

The area of Juarez where most factory workers live had one high school until 2011 for over 600,000 inhabitants. Juarez’s proximity to the United States, illicit trade, coupled with limited social opportunities, fueled the environment that made Ciudad Juarez the most violent city in the world. In 2008 when the Sinaloa Cartel entered to take over the local drug trade the cartels began employing youth and used existing street gang infrastructure to battle for the city block by block. Disgruntled teenagers took to the streets to become sicarios or hitmen. By 2012 the death toll would reach over 10,000. This pattern has now been repeated in cities across Mexico and into Central America.

The most vulnerable social group in Juarez is “Los Ninis,” young men and women who earn their name from the phrase “ni estudian, ni trabajan” (those who neither work nor study). According to a recent study by the Colegio de La Frontera Norte, as many as 45 percent of all Juarez residents between the ages of 14 and 24 fall into this category and they make up a quarter of the city’s total homicide victims.

Massacres of Juarez’s youth were common—they were gunned down at parties and targeted at rehab centers. Killing was indiscriminate. The first mass killing of youths took place in January 2010 when 15 teenagers were gunned down at a party where friends had gathered to celebrate a birthday. Fourteen other teens were gunned downed in October 2010.

Without work, or a real incentive to work, young people are increasingly turning to the cartels where the boundaries between crime and an honest path are often blurred by the bloodshed and fear enveloping the city.

Chapter 2: Pax Mafioso (2012 – present)

Siciarios, or hitmen, still haunt Ciudad Juarez, but they have grown tired of killing. At their bloodiest, the homicides exceeded 300 murders a month, July 2012 – a record month – would see 48. And yet, while “life has returned to the murder capitol of the world,” the question remains: at what cost?

Authorities have been quick to attribute the drop in violence to policing and social programs, but residents claim Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel has finally tightened its grasp.

Related Content

Diego Montejano grew up in a poor neighborhood of Juárez, Mexico, at the height of the drug wars that ravaged the city from 2008 to 2012. During that time Juárez was considered the most dangerous city in the world, with a reported homicide rate of 10 people a day in 2010.